Lumba Sumba Pass Trek

Chirwa – 1270 m / 4166 ft – 6 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 6 hours
• 🏡 Accommodation: Tea House
• 🍽️ Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
• 📍 Overnight stay: Chirwa (Camping)

A day filled with firsts! The first day of serious hiking follows your first breakfast at the campsite! You will probably encounter other hikers over the next few days since you are traveling to Chirwa today, which is also included in the Kanchenjunga Base Camp Trek.

Today, you will go through meadows and deep woodlands with some steep inclines. Additionally, you will traverse the Tamor River on a suspension bridge.

Illa Danda – 2051 m / 6729 ft – 9 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 9 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Illa Danda Camping

The Kanchenjunga Conservation Area is home to numerous types of birds, so you should keep a watch out for them today. You will travel through thick woodlands that may conceal some of the local wildlife, like langur monkeys and musk deer. The rarer creatures can be added to this list at greater elevations.

You can spend some time at the monastery after ascending uphill and over a suspension bridge before descending to Gowatar hamlet. There is a massive 100-meter (328-foot) waterfall not far from the town. After there, there’s a quick climb to Illa Danda, which offers breathtaking views of the Alps.

Selep Kharka – 2525 m / 8284 ft – 9 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 9 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Selep Kharka Camping

Today, after crossing a suspension bridge, more meadows and grazing pastures—possibly with sheep and yaks on them—become visible as the dense trees slightly recede. There are breathtaking vistas of the mountains as the trail climbs.

In reality, your campground for tonight is one of these high-altitude meadows with breathtaking views of the mountains.

Olangchung Gola – 3208 m / 10524 ft – 7 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 7 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Olangchung Gola Camping

As the altitude starts to rise today, the trekking is starting to become a little more strenuous. Enjoy the hike as you bridge the Tamor River once more and pass through more meadows and pastures because you have had plenty of time to get used to it. Additionally, you will hike through rhododendron forests, which are breathtaking in the spring when they blossom.

Olangchung Gola is a high-altitude meadow that offers breathtaking views of the Kanchenjunga Massif and other snow-capped peaks. You will spend the night camping here and take in the splendor of the surrounding mountains.

Olangchung Gola – 3208 m / 10524 ft – 2 hrs

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Olangchung Gola Camping

Today is an acclimatization day, so get ready for the high altitude that lies ahead.

Olangchung Gola is home to a monastery that is said to be more than 400 years old. You can take some time to explore it and Olangchung Gola, a Sherpa settlement.

If not, this is an opportunity to unwind, rest, and consider the future.

Upper Langmale – 3893 m / 12772 ft – 7 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 7 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Upper Langmale

One of the reasons for yesterday’s acclimatization day is that you are ascending significantly in altitude today. There are pastures at the beginning of the trail, but scree and moraines make it rougher. The winds can get strong and cold at this altitude. The trail might even have some snow spots. Both the altitude and the loose or slick ground beneath your feet require caution.

Lumba Sumba Pass Camp – 4748 m / 15577 ft – 6 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 6 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Lumba Sumba Pass Camp

Today, the Tamor River is your route. Maybe you’ll make a lunch stop close to Tangchetar village and then walk the same distance to your overnight destination.

Over tea and biscuits, your guide will give you an overview of what to expect as you cross the 5,177-meter (16,984.9-foot) Lumba Sumba Pass.

In order to be ready for tomorrow’s big day, try to get as much sleep as you can tonight.

Spend the night camping in Lumba Sumba Pass Camp.

Chauri Kharka – 4598 m / 15085 ft – 10 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 10 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Chauri Kharka Camping

Climbing the Lumba Sumba Pass (5,160 m/16,929 ft) is a long and difficult day. In order to cross the pass before the strong winds arrive, which are often in the late morning, you will need to start early, either at dawn or before dawn.

You must cross snowfields in the initial section of the journey, which can be dangerous and quite deep.

Amazing views of the Kanchenjunga Massif, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Lhotse, and numerous more peaks and glaciers can be seen from the top of the pass. As you descend and enter the Makalu Barun region, you will be able to see the Arun Valley.

Proceed cautiously and gently to your overnight camp.

Thudam – 3500 m / 11482 ft – 7 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 7 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Thudam Camping

Today, the terrain returns to more greenery and a few Sherpa communities as you descend significantly in elevation.

The Makalu region’s mountain peaks, bamboo woods, and the Chhujung Khola (river) will all be visible. Additionally, you are now quite near the Tibetan border.

Kharka – 2877 m / 9483 ft – 6 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 6 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Kharka Camping

Once more, you are following the Chhujung River through bamboo and bushes today. If you’d want, it’s another chance to go bird viewing. Additionally, keep an eye out for red pandas. This elusive creature lives in the Makalu Barun National Park and beyond, but it is extremely difficult to spot.

Because of the lower elevation, crossing cultivated ground indicates that this area is more populated.

Overnight at Kharka – camping.

Hatiya – 1595 m / 5232 ft – 6 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 6 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Hatiya Camping

When you get to Hatiya in the Arun Valley, you will enter Makalu National Park.

After descending through cool, shaded woodlands, the terrain is changing to terraced farms and lower foothills.

The majority of the residents in Hatiya are Bhote. Native tribes from the Himalayan Belt are known as the Bhote or Bhotiya.

Gola – 1128 m / 3700 ft – 6 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 6 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Gola Camping

Today, you walk to the tiny settlement of Gola, passing the meeting point of the Arun and Barun rivers.

Camping at Gola for the night.

Hedangna Gadi – 1179 m / 3868 ft – 7 hrs

• 🕒 Trek duration: 7 hours

• ⛺ Accommodation: Camping

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Gadhi Camping

You reach the Gurung settlement of Pathivara after walking over terraced rice fields for a few hours. Unlike the communities you have been viewing on your trip to a remote area, this place has some shops and tea cafes. If they have local cookies, enjoy them here along with a soft drink. Yes, perhaps have two soft drinks as this is the last day of hiking!

Hedangna Gadhi is reached later on the trek, where you spend the night.

Tumlingtar – 1020 m / 3346 ft – 4–5 hrs (Drive)

• 🚐 Drive duration: 4–5 hours

• 🏨 Accommodation: Hotel

• 🍽️ Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

• 📍 Overnight: Tumlingtar

Following breakfast, it’s a quick walk to Num, where you’ll be picked up by a public jeep and driven to Tumlingtar, where you’ll board a flight to Kathmandu.

Enjoy your final dinner prepared by your amazing camp cook, your final night with your camping group, and your final conversation with your guide tonight.